Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

The first thing you probably want to decide is what type of headphones you want. The V6 and M50 are both closed over-ear headphones and the SR80i is open and on-ear. Once you figure that out you should probably try and find somewhere you can try various headphones out, since headphone sound preference is about as personal as piano touch preference.

With that said, all 3 headphones you are considering are good general headphone choices, and as such should work fine for piano. I've heard both the V6 and M50 and they both seemed quite good (and are well-regarded on head-fi), but didn't try either with my DP. I actually own a pair of SR80i (and Shure SRH840, and Sennheiser HD600, etc...) and like them quite a bit both in general and for piano. But as mentioned above, it's all personal preference, so if possible I'd recommend trying to listen before buying.

Sony V6 are PHENOMENAL. My brother has them and I am listening sometimes on them. Even from iPAD the sound is astonishing. You can't go better. Generaly, Sony headphones are underestimed in the HI-END and audio interested people. Probably due to fact that Sony is all-pupropse company. People are buying boomy and dull Sennheihers, some AKG and other... while some models of Sony are blowing everything off. However, they are on the bright side of sound.

Even here - people buy to their piano mostly AKG or Sennheisers. While Sony IMO is better headphones manufacturer then these two, or at the same level.

Depends entirely on which model Sennheisers you're talking about. Since they have such a large range of models some of the cheaper ones are inevitably not that good.

The main reason Sony isn't considered most of the time for truly high quality audio is because they don't currently make any truly high end headphones. They used to with the R10 and Qualia, but haven't since then. Now the top performers are Sennheiser for traditional dynamic drivers, Audez'e and Hifiman with their planar models, and of course Stax for electrostats.

Yes, Sony makes some good headphones, but they are nowhere near the top for sound quality. The reason the V6 and 7506 are still popular is because they are some of the best around $100, not because they are the absolute best. Other contenders around that price point are the entry-level Grados and Shure 440s.

Sorry to say Deffie,But I need to say that you knowledge about Sony's headphones is wrong.Sony has model in each price gruop, and at the highest level they are better then Senns. Senns are popular because "oh, sennheiser, it must be good".I was listening few of them, some on some poor Denon home cinema amplifiers, or HD-600 on some dedicated headphones amplifier... and sorry... I would never paid such amount of money for such horrible sound.I know they have their fans, but when comes to phones I always tell people to buy Sony or AKG.

And they are much ahead in terms of sound before the Senns, and many others.People just don't like the label SONY on their Hi-end pricey phones...

Sony currently has nothing that competes with the HD600, HD650 or HD800 (HD700 as well, but those have some treble issues). Whether their sound signature is to your preference is an entirely different issue, but no, Sony is not currently competing in the high-end headphone market.

While it's certainly possible I've forgotten a model or two, the fact remains that Sony does not currently compete in the high-end headphone market. This isn't intended as an insult to you or Sony; just an observation of a market that they are not currently pursuing. If you feel otherwise then please, let me know what model(s) you feel compete with something like the above mentioned Sennheisers, Audez'e or Stax headphones.

And as stated above, the V6 are still good headphones, but I wouldn't make any claim that they compete with some of the current best, just that they are quite good for the price.

Unfortunately I haven't used these Sony headphones, but I have the Senn 595's and also the ATH M50's mentioned earlier (which are more expensive than the Sonys in question but considered a good buy). These are both reasonably well regarded but I can tell you that the Sennheisers are better by a large, large margin, especially for piano use (when listening to CD-quality pop music I don't find that the quality difference matters as much). I am very skeptical about claims that any closed headphone sounds as good (detailed, realistic) as the HD595's.

Anyway, the HD595's aren't even on the above list of high end headphones and I can't tell how much you get for all the extra money to get to that level, but I can say that Sennheiser's popularity and reputation isn't just due to the snob factor.

There are some closed headphones that best them, but typically open headphones are better at a given price point.

Top tier closed headphones:Denon D2000, D5000, D7000 (these are the 'old' models that have since been replaced by reportedly inferior new models...I've listened to the D7000 a few times and it's not really to my taste)Fostex TH600, TH900 (Fostex made the above cans for Denon and reportedly their own versions are even better...I've heard the TH900 briefly, but not long enough to have any useful insight)Sony MDR-R10 (super rare, been out of production for years, and extremely expensive...I've heard the more 'consumer' version with cheaper construction and they sounded quite good)

Still, in general the R10 is considered by many to be the only closed headphone that can truly keep up with some of the best open cans.